Zhang Yue walked into Zhang Mansion.
This place is very large, covering an area of four or five acres.
Under dusk, the courtyard is covered with pines, cypresses and ancient locust trees. The deep courtyard has the style of an official's family, which is not inferior to that of Ouyang Xiu's family.
Zhang Yue also asked: "Old Du Guan, did your uncle buy this house?"
The old capital official smiled and said: "Yes, it cost a lot of money. Master Lang also sold his house in Suzhou and raised a lot of money before settling down in Bianjing."
Zhang Yue once again lamented that housing prices in Bianjing are really extremely expensive!
But seeing that there is a half-acre square pond in the backyard of the house, with pavilions and water pavilions beside the pond, and the pond is full of lotus flowers, Zhang Yue, who lives in the inn, deeply feels that it is good to be rich, even if rich people now want to It is impossible to have a house of several acres in the third ring road of Beijing.
With Lao Du Guan leading the way, Zhang Yue walked to a side hall and saw a middle-aged man with an excellent bearing peeling tangerines.
Zhang Yue thought to himself, isn't this the season for eating tangerines? Are you still eating them when they are so shriveled?
But I saw the man saying to the servant: "This mandarin orange was delivered this spring and is sweet and full of flavor, but now I can't eat it. But don't throw it away. Leave the core and plant it in the backyard. After planting it for more than ten years, there will be this orange again." Eat the sweet and plump mandarin oranges.”
The servant looked like he wanted to laugh but didn't dare to laugh, but saw that the middle-aged man peeled a few of the out-of-season oranges, ate them, spit out the cores, and put them on the plate and said, "I can eat it, and so can you." Eat, these will be given to the people below to eat, and the seeds will be planted at the edge of the courtyard."
Having said this, the middle-aged man looked at Zhang Yue and said with a smile: "These servants are probably laughing at me from the bottom of their hearts, saying that at my age, after more than ten years, I am afraid that I will not be able to wait for the day when the tree will bear fruit." , let alone eat this orange."
"Don't you know that Liu Zongyuan was demoted to Liuzhou and planted 200 yellow tangerines on his own? He didn't necessarily expect the tangerine trees to bloom and spray the snow and drop the pearls to pick the fruits, but he said that if you just sit and wait for the forest to grow, the taste will be enough to support an old man. How generous!"
Zhang Yue laughed in his heart. Not only did he give such a shriveled tangerine to his servants to eat, but he also had to collect the core to plant an tangerine tree. Zhang Yue simply cried out in his heart for such operations.
He's stingy, he's stingy, he's trying to put money on his face, and he's saying some great truths, he's really shameless!
Zhang Yue said: "This must be "Planting Orange Trees in the Northwest Corner of Liuzhou City" written by Liu Zongyuan when he was demoted to Liuzhou."
Zhang Yue chanted: "I planted two hundred yellow tangerines with my hands in spring, and the new leaves came all over the city. Fang and the guests from Chu pitied the imperial tree, but did not imitate the Limunu of Jingzhou. How old are the flowers that bloom and smell the snow, and who picks the actual weeping pearls? If Sitting and waiting for the day to grow into a forest is as good as supporting an old man. However, there is a sentence in Liu Zongyuan's poem that I cannot agree with."
"Oh? You actually questioned Liu Hedong?"
Zhang Yue said: "That's right. If you don't follow the example of Jingzhou Limunu, you can refer to Li Heng, the former governor of Danyang."
"Li Heng, the prefect of Danyang, was an honest official. In his later years, he planted thousands of orange trees in Sizhou, Longyang, Wuling, and left them as property for his descendants. Before he died, he said to his son, I have thousands of wooden slaves in the state. It’s enough.”
"As a prefect, Li Heng was honest and self-sufficient. He did not run the family and manage the finances. He only left thousands of citrus trees for future generations. How can such a good deed be compared to that of a lumber slave? With several acres of citrus groves, he could sit under the shade and shelter from the rain, and he could reap numerous fruits. , wouldn’t it be nice to have the best of both worlds? It’s not a gentleman to hide your interests and express your righteousness!”
The middle-aged man smiled when he heard this.
The old man on the side reported: "Master Qi, this is Mr. Zhang Sanlang."
Zhang Yue was 'surprised' and said: "I didn't know that my uncle was here, so I just talked nonsense. Please forgive me."
There is a lie called, I am lying, you also understand that I am lying, I also understand that you understand that I am lying. But I still lied.
Zhang Yu waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter, that makes sense. I heard that when you were in Pucheng, you were uneducated and had no skills, eating, drinking and having fun all day long. I was really worried, but now that I see you have become a talented person, I have put my worries aside. ."
At this point, Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to explain it. Wouldn't it be beautiful?"
"Uncle asked me to tell you what you want to say to me? Please make it clear that my nephew will go to Bianjing's night view later."
Zhang Yu nodded and motioned for the boss to take charge.
Zhang Yu said: "Sanlang, please sit down. You and I are uncles and nephews respectively. Your parents and I are much closer than you think, so you don't have to be so defensive about me. It's your first time in Bianjing." How about witnessing its prosperity?”
Zhang Yue sat down and said, "I have been studying in the inn these past ten days and haven't had time to go shopping yet."
Zhang Yu praised: "You can turn a blind eye to the prosperity of Bianjing, but you can study in an inn. This can be called seeing the garden without seeing. With this determination, I also understand why you can enter Bianjing in just two years." coming."
"I still remember that you told Du Guan that although the mountains in Fujian are high, they are not as high as the sky. Now you have come here by your own ability."
Zhang Yue said: "What I said back then was ridiculous."
Zhang Yu said: "I underestimated you when I asked you to go to school in Suzhou. But now that you have come to Bianjing, I still asked the old governor to invite you here. Do you know what I mean?"
Zhang Yue said: "It's still Brother Dun's business!"
Zhang Yu said: "It is true, Sanlang, do you know what I care about most now? At my current age, my official position and money are not much lower, but it is difficult to go further. As for Brother Dun, I have watched him grow up. But it’s not what I care about most, so I might as well tell you these things.”
Zhang Yue said: "Then what does uncle care about?"
"What I care about is the family fortune! You also know that Brother Dun has a younger brother who was born to me as a concubine. What I regret most is that I didn't leave him to your aunt to discipline him. Now he is extremely useless and naughty. In the future, the family fortune Delivered into his hands, it will be destroyed.”
Zhang Yue thought to himself, of course, otherwise he would be called a little mother-in-law.
"If he had the appearance of 10% out of 10 of Brother Dun, or if he was as ambitious as you, I would never make such a move. My uncle and I studied for most of our lives, wasted half our lives, and finally got the Jinshi by luck and became a How can I be willing to surrender this fortune that I have saved up after becoming an official to this ineffective ruin?"
Zhang Yue said: "So uncle just took this matter as a matter of course?"
Zhang Yu said: "It's not a matter of course, but everyone gets what they need. Isn't this the same between people in the world, even between brothers? Can you listen to this?"
Zhang Yue said: "I can't refute what uncle said, but..."
Zhang Yu interrupted Zhang Yue and said, "Your aunt and brother Dun don't know anything about what you came to do today. These words are only between you and me. God knows that you know that I know, that's all, okay?"
Zhang Yue said: "I won't say anything."
Zhang Yu said: "Okay, Brother Dun gave up his official position last year and now he plans to take the exam again. He has been admitted to the Kaifeng Prefecture. If as expected, the court will hold a tribute examination next year, then the Kaifeng Prefecture Examination will be held in a few months. Okay. This explanation is very important to Brother Dun and me. We must not make any mistakes."
"But you have come to Bianjing at this time. Whether you are taking the imperial examination or demonstrating to Brother Dun, I don't care. But since you have come to Bianjing, uncle, I only ask you one thing. , get back together with Brother Dun!"
"Brother Dun and I have reconciled, what does it have to do with his interpretation of the test?" Zhang Yue asked.
Zhang Yu said: "Of course it has something to do with it. He abandoned the order before and someone said that he has no actions. If you say that again...he didn't inform his family and changed his residence to my family. Once this word spread, his reputation would be ruined." Extremely intrusive."
Zhang Yue said angrily: "I have never said that! Even in the countryside, my brother and I covered up for him."
Zhang Yu said: "Of course it's good that Sanlang doesn't say anything, but what if someone asks you? There are people with sinister natures in this world! So the best way is to get you back together with Brother Dun, so that outsiders can see everything. The rumors were self-defeating."
Zhang Yue stood up angrily and said: "It's not that I don't get back together with my second brother, but that my second brother hasn't even sent a letter home so far. If he sends a letter, even if he doesn't say the original reason , say hello to my family, why is it like this today?"
Zhang Yu waved his hand and said, "I know the reason why brother Dun didn't send home letters. I don't blame him for this."
"Oh? I asked my uncle to show me."
Zhang Yu sighed: "You also know that when you recognize relatives by family status, you have become two families at least in name. You are still young and it is difficult to explain the truth to you in detail."
Zhang Yue seemed to understand a little after hearing this.
Zhang Yu said: "I didn't want Brother Dun to still have contact with your family at first, but now I have figured it out. Brother Dun has already married, and I plan to give half of the family property to him. As for you, It’s okay for his biological brother to take away a little bit.”
"Of course, you and I are tacitly aware of this. You don't have to come here to report it to me. I just pretend I don't know. It's not easy for you when you first come here. Living in the capital has not been easy since ancient times. It's good to have brothers to support each other. So today All the words, only you know and I know, there is no need to tell your second brother."
"Besides, you don't have to doubt my sincerity. Money has always been tight for me, so I can say that it's not easy to get this job. If you succeed in the future, you will also have the heart to work with Brother Dun to help you. My incompetent cousin, I can't thank you enough even if I'm under the spell of Jiuquan."
Zhang Yue nodded and said: "Uncle, I understand. This is what you said about each getting what he needs. Is this how even brothers settle accounts?"
Zhang Yu nodded and said: "That's right. You can use words to express your feelings when settling accounts. If you think it's not enough, I will compensate you more. If you think the money is not enough, there are other things. As long as brother Dun successfully passes the Jinshi examination, you will also be able to do so in the future. But you can stand firm in Bianjing. I have always been a villain before being a gentleman. What I said before was a bit unpleasant, but it doesn't matter. You can think about it however you want. It doesn't matter."
"The important thing is that you are now helpless in Bianjing. You don't even have enough money to stay in an inn for how many days. If you have today and no tomorrow, how can you talk about anything else? You may not be deeply involved in the world now, or you may be young and ambitious. , I don’t quite understand what I said today, but I am someone who has been there, and if I were you, I would never hesitate at all.”
Zhang Yue hasn't spoken yet.
At this time, the old governor had walked in, and Zhang Yu said displeasedly: "Didn't I tell you not to disturb me?"
The old governor looked a little unhappy and said: "Master Lang, there is a message from the Ouyang Scholar's Mansion... Please invite Mr. Zhang Sanlang to come to the mansion!"
ps: Thanks again to Nanmeng for the 300,000 yuan reward!
